NATION/briefly - 09-01-01

Palm Beach punchcards for sale

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla.  Palm Beach County plans to auction up to 5,000 of its infamous punchcard voting machines to defray the $14 million cost of buying new, computerized counters.

The voting machines will be sold on eBay, the online auction house, starting Nov. 7  the anniversary of the election that made Palm Beach County the butt of jokes worldwide.

To stimulate bidding, county Elections Supervisor Theresa LePore has asked lawyers whether she can include a genuine butterfly ballot, which some voters found so confusing they say they mistakenly voted for candidate Pat Buchanan instead of Al Gore.

"I wish it would go away, but I know it won't," LePore said of county's election infamy. "Out of everything bad, hopefully, something good will happen."

Border guide guilty of murder

YUMA, Ariz.  A Mexican border-crossing guide was found guilty of second-degree murder in the death of a 13-year-old boy during an Arizona desert trek.

Alfredo Cabrera Miranda, 24, was found guilty Wednesday in the death of Jonathan Saldivar. The jury also found him guilty of endangerment in the near-death of the boy's mother, Maria Saldivar.

Miranda told the court he led the Saldivar family, including the boy's father, across the border into the Arizona desert last August.

The prosecution accused him of abandoning the family for two hours, while the defense said Miranda placed them in hiding while he monitored a Border Patrol agent.

When Jonathan's mother became ill, the boy left to search for water. Border Patrol agents found the parents alive, and Jonathan's body was discovered by agents who followed his tracks.

Miranda's sentencing was scheduled for Sept. 26.

Sadomasochist sentenced to prison

SUBHEAD:SPOKANE, Wash.  The leader of a sado-masochism ring that kidnapped and raped Jap-anese college students studying in Spokane has been sentenced to 26 years in prison.

Edmund F. Ball, 40, was sentenced Thurs-day. He pleaded guilty in May to charges of rape, kidnapping and witness intimidation stemming from the abductions of three Mukogawa Fort Wright Institute students Nov. 11.

His accomplices contended that Ball  lead-er of the Spokane Power Exchange, an S&M group  masterminded the rapes and abduc-tions.

Earlier this year, David Dailey, 38, was sen-tenced to 25 years in prison in the case. Lana Vickery got 16 years in prison.